Systems and methods for computer implemented treatment of behavioral disorders

ABSTRACT

A system and method are provided for treating excessive or problematic computer use. In at least one embodiment, a method is employed to treat excessive or problematic computer use by acquiring information about the unwanted user activity, monitoring user activity for the unwanted behavior, controlling the behavior when it occurs, enabling the user to record self-observations and evaluating the results. This method may employ a computer based system to treat excessive or problematic computer use which includes configuring a user activity monitor with constraints, programmatically enforcing those constraints, reporting the activities monitored and restricted, and enabling a user to input self-observations. Potential constraints include a complete bar on the user activity, as well as, progressively decreasing the amount of time the user may engage in the activity, i.e. titrating the user activity.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation and claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/137,330 titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODSFOR COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED TREATMENT OF BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS” and filed onApr. 25, 2016, which is a continuation and claims benefit under 35U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/300,445 titled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED TREATMENT OF BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS” andfiled on Jun. 10, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,325,799, issued Apr. 26,2016, which is a continuation and claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/493,411 titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORCOMPUTER IMPLEMENTED TREATMENT OF BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS” and filed onJun. 11, 2012, which is a continuation and claims benefit under 35U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/934,574 titled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED TREATMENT OF BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS” andfiled on Nov. 2, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,201,223, issued Jun. 12,2012, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. ProvisionalApplication 60/856,507 filed Nov. 3, 2006 and titled “Methods andSystems for Computer Implemented Treatment of Behavioral Disorders,”each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 1. Field of Invention

Aspects of the present invention relate generally to systems and methodsfor computer implemented treatment of behavioral disorders, and morespecifically, to a computer implemented system and method for treatingexcessive or problematic computer use.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Fueled by continued advances in information technology and the growth ofthe internet, the average person's personal and professional computeruse has increased dramatically in recent times. For example, while inthe not-too-distant past the internet may have been in the purview of arather restricted demographic, a 2006 study concluded that 74% of homesin the United States now have Internet access.

While much of this use is positive and productive, for some this amountof computer and internet use can become excessive and problematic.Examples of such excessive and problematic behavior range from simpletime mismanagement to severely addictive behavior. For instance, manypeople spend more time checking email or surfing the web than they allotfor such, and many users of internet gaming sites suffer from compulsivegaming habits. Researchers have estimated that one out of every eightAmericans show signs of problematic internet use. Such unwanted behaviorhas garnered the attention of health care providers. For example, arecent publication of the American Medical Association recommended thatchildren's total screen time be limited to 1 to 2 hours a day.Unfortunately, given the ubiquity and necessity of internet and computeruse, complete abstinence is not a feasible means of preventing suchbehavior, and many do not require or are reluctant to seek professionalassistance in treating such behavior.

The software industry has authored programs directed toward monitoringand recording computer use. Such systems are often used by employers tocontrol and understand how and where their employees spend their time.Similarly, programs exist that enable a person in authority to prohibitaccess to specified internet sites and computer applications or to allowaccess only to specified internet sites and computer applications. Theseprograms are often used by parents or educational personnel to ensurethat children have access only to appropriate content.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In broad overview, aspects and embodiments of the present inventionovercome or alleviate one or more of the problems of conventionalbehavior modification technology. For instance, at least one embodimentof the present invention provides a system capable of monitoring andgradually curtailing computer and internet use, while allowing the userto record observations about one's reaction to the treatment. These andother elements and features of the present invention yield moreeffective treatment of unwanted computer use than conventionalapproaches.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a system is providedfor treating unwanted computer use. The system includes a controllerconfigured to control a user activity on a computer system according toat least one constraint. The at least one constraint may either restricteach instance of the user activity to a titrated duration or cause auser to engage in a cognitive restructuring exercise. The system alsoincludes a memory coupled to the controller. The memory may store the atleast one constraint.

The system may further include an input coupled to the controller andconfigured to receive at least one motivator to dissuade a user fromengaging in the user activity. The at least one motivator may beassociated with at least one user activity. The controller may befurther configured to store the at least one motivator in the memory,and the cognitive restructuring exercise may include providing the userwith the at least one motivator when the user attempts to perform theuser activity. In the system, the at least one motivator may include atleast one motivator individually tailored to the user.

In the system, the at least one constraint may include an identifier ofthe user. In the system, the at least one constraint may be receivedfrom an external database. In the system, the at least one constraintmay include an identifier of a website to which access is to beconstrained. In the system, the at least one constraint may include anidentifier of a software application to which access is to beconstrained. In the system, the titrated duration may include aprogressively decreasing duration that decreases by a constant amount oftime for each instance of the user activity. In the system, the titratedduration may include a progressively decreasing duration that decreasesby a variable amount of time for each instance of the user activity. Inthe system, the titrated duration may include a progressively decreasingduration that decreases by a random amount of time for each instance ofthe user activity. In the system, the controller may be furtherconfigured to store a record of the user activity in the memory.

The system may further include an output coupled to the controller andconfigured to provide the record of the user activity to an externalentity. In the system, the input may be further configured to receiveinformation regarding past user activity. The controller may be furtherconfigured to store the information regarding past user activity in thememory, and the output may be further configured to provide the pastuser activity compared to the record of the user activity to an externalentity.

In the system, the input may be further configured to receiveself-observations from the user. The controller may be furtherconfigured to store the information regarding past user activity in thememory, and the output is further configured to provide theself-observations to an external entity.

According to another aspect of the present invention, acomputer-implemented method for treating unwanted use of a computer isprovided. The method includes receiving at least one constraintidentifying a user activity to be constrained and a type of constraintto be imposed on the user activity. The type of constraint may includeeither restricting the user activity to a titrated duration or causing auser to engage in a cognitive restructuring exercise. The method mayalso include controlling, by the computer, the user activity accordingto the at least one constraint.

In the method, controlling, by the computer, the user activity mayinclude storing a record of user activity. In the method, receiving atleast one constraint may include receiving at least one motivator todissuade a user from engaging in the user activity.

The method may also include identifying the user. The method my furtherinclude receiving self-observations from the user. The method mayfurther include receiving past user activity, and reporting subsequentuser activity compared to the past user activity.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computerreadable medium is provided that includes instructions that whenexecuted by a controller, cause the controller to perform a method thatincludes receiving at least one constraint identifying a user activityto be constrained and a type of constraint to be imposed on the useractivity. The type of constraint may include either restricting the useractivity to a titrated duration or causing a user to engage in acognitive restructuring exercise. The method may also includecontrolling, by the computer, the user activity according to the atleast one constraint.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, are not intended to be drawn to scale. In thedrawings, each identical or nearly identical component that isillustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. Forpurposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in everydrawing. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a process for treating excessive orproblematic computer use according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows, in context, a system for treating excessive or problematiccomputer use in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a general-purpose computer system upon which variousembodiments of the invention may be practiced;

FIG. 4 illustrates a storage device of a general-purpose computersystem; and

FIG. 5 depicts a network of general-purpose computer systems.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects and embodiment of the present invention will now bedescribed in more detail with reference to the accompanying figures. Itis to be appreciated that this invention is not limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and the arrangement ofcomponents set forth in the following description or illustrated in thedrawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of beingpracticed or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specificimplementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only andare not intended to be limiting. In particular, acts, elements andfeatures discussed in connection with any one or more embodiments arenot intended to be excluded from a similar role in any otherembodiments. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is forthe purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. Theuse of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,”and variations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listedthereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

At least one embodiment of the present invention relates to a method fortreating excessive or problematic computer use. This embodiment isdiscussed further with regard to FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows an example process for treating excessive or problematiccomputer use according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thisprocess may be implemented using a general-purpose computer system asdiscussed with regard to FIG. 3 below. This process may be repeateduntil the user activity falls within acceptable limits. At the block202, process 200 begins.

At block 204, user activity information may be acquired. This useractivity information may serve as a baseline level of unwanted useractivity, e.g. the amount of time a user currently spends performing theactivity to be changed. As is described in more detail below, furtheractivity may be compared to the baseline in order to determine progress.In one embodiment, user information may be acquired from informationderived from external databases, such as databases that categorizewebsites and software content. In another embodiment, user informationmay be acquired from descriptive information contained within thewebsites or applications themselves. In still another embodiment, theuser information may be acquired by the user. Other sources ofinformation may be incorporated as they become available. In general,user activity information may include all of the behaviors that are tobe treated. In one embodiment, this information may include specificwebsites or applications that are to be constrained, the amount of timespent engaging in a user activity that is considered typical for a user,the amount of time an average person spends engaging in this useractivity, a list of individually tailored motivators to dissuade theuser from engaging in this user activity, e.g. reasons not to engage inthe activity and/or alternative courses of action, a categorizationhierarchy to which this user activity belongs, e.g. news sites, gamingapplications, etc., and the type of constraint to be imposed, e.g.complete bar, titration, etc.

Titration refers to progressive restriction on the amount of time that aperson is allowed to engage in a specific activity. The size of thestep-down, i.e. the duration by which the titrated activity is decreasedper time period or per instance of the titrated activity, varies, andthe rate at which the step-down size changes may follow sundry pathsincluding, for example, random, linear or exponential paths. Once atitration schedule has been set, its limits can be enforced withoutnotifying the user of the newly decreased duration. Constraints may beimposed at any level within the categorization hierarchy. This useractivity information may be used in subsequent blocks 208 and 212 toboth monitor and control actual user activity.

At block 206, self-observations may be recorded. In one embodiment,these observations may be freeform articulations of the user's emotionalstate before, during and after engaging in unwanted behavior. In anotherembodiment, self-observations may be placed into a pre-existing form tofollow a defined treatment protocol. For instance, a treatment protocolmay require the user to record his Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS)level and how much time he anticipates spending engaged in a certainuser activity. Alternatively, users may be prompted to engage incognitive restructuring exercises.

At block 208, user activity may be monitored. In one embodiment,monitored user activity may include interaction with computer inputhardware, e.g. keyboard, mouse, etc. and the interaction's effect on thecomputer software, e.g. which applications are started or which websitesare visited. Monitored user activity may be used in subsequent blocks212 and 216 to facilitate control and evaluation of monitored useractivity.

At block 210, additional self-observations may be recorded. As withblock 206, these observations may be freeform or may follow a definedtreatment protocol, e.g. recording a SUDS level. In one embodiment,these observations may be requested regularly or sporadically, e.g.follow a random or some predefined pattern.

At block 212, monitored user activity may be controlled. The type ofcontrol may depend upon the constraints requested by the user in block204. In one embodiment, if the type of user activity is completelybarred, then the user is prevented from engaging in the attemptedbehavior, e.g. prevented from browsing to a gaming website. If the typeof user activity is subject to titration, a step-down from the previousallowed duration may be applied, and the user is then allowed to engagein the activity for the newly determined duration. In anotherembodiment, the user may be presented with a set of alternative,computer and/or non-computer related activities that are considered moreproductive than the attempted activity.

At block 214, additional self-observations may be recorded. As withblocks 206 and 210 these observations may be freeform or may follow adefined treatment protocol, e.g. recording a SUDS level. In oneembodiment, the user may be asked to estimate the amount of timeactually spent engaging in a user activity. In an another embodiment,users may be prompted to follow the “ABC” form of analysis fromCognitive Behavioral Therapy where Antecedents, e.g. emotional states,situational factors, etc.; Behavior, e.g. user activity and emotionalstates; and Consequences, e.g. decreased productivity, anger from familymembers, increased debt, etc. are all identified and recorded for lateranalysis.

At block 216, results may be evaluated and appropriate action may betaken by the user or a health care professional. In an embodiment, thisevaluation may include review of user activity reports showing theamount of time spent engaged in unwanted behavior compared to othermeasures including initial baseline levels and user predicted levels ofuse recorded at previous blocks, such as blocks 204 and 206.Additionally, the user activity reports may show by user activity: startand stop times, the anticipated duration, the estimated actual duration,the actual duration and the SUDS level. In another embodiment, thiscontent may include a set of activities that could have beenaccomplished using the time consumed by unwanted user activity.

Further, at block 216, the user may be rewarded upon achieving certaindecreased usage milestones. This reward may take any form known in theart including reward tokens, affirmation emails, etc. Lastly, based uponthe evaluated results, new courses of action may be prescribed, e.g. acontinued step-down duration, a new alternative behavioral suggestionper block 212, etc.

At block 218, process 200 ends.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system 300 for treating excessive or problematiccomputer use according to one embodiment of the invention whenimplemented on one or more computer systems. Any of the recited modulesmay be implemented in customized software code or using existingsoftware including a GUI, email, FTP, batch system interface, databasesystem data movement tools, middleware, scanning with optical characterrecognition (OCR), any combination thereof, or otherwise. Moreover,embodiments in accord with the present invention may adopt any modularstructure and are not limited to those shown in FIG. 2. The particularmodular arrangement presented in FIG. 2 was chosen to promote clarity.

System 300 may include a user activity configurer module 302, a useractivity monitor module 304, a user activity controller module 306, aninput/output interface module 308, and a self-observation interfacemodule 310. Module 302 may accept user activity information from varioussources and supplies modules 304 and 306 with user activity constraints.Module 304 may accept user activity constraints from module 302 and useractivity from monitored applications and the operating system. Module304 may supply user activity to module 306 and monitored activity tomodule 308. Module 306 may accept user activity constraints from module302 and user activity from module 304 and supply constrained activity tomodule 308. Module 306 may also enforce the constraints againstmonitored applications and the operating system. Module 308 may acceptand supply system information from and to a system informationrepository. Module 308 may also supply rewards and activity reports tousers. Module 310 may accept user self-observations and supplyself-observations to module 308. Information may flow between thesemodules using by any means know in the art including, for example, bypassing the information over the network via TCP/IP, by passing theinformation between modules in memory or by writing the information to afile, database, or some other non-volatile storage device.

Module 302 may acquire user activity information such as that discussedabove with reference to block 204 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment, aninitial set of user activity may be supplied by the system withsupplemental activity added by the user. In another embodiment, thesystem may import this information from an encrypted data stream or fromencrypted data files on a storage device or have it supplied by a thirdparty on a subscription basis. Thus, the third party may be able toconfigure user activity information on behalf of the user.

Module 304 may monitor user activity. Monitoring may includeintercepting and decoding both user interaction with hardware and itsassociated affect on the software being executed. In one embodiment,this monitoring may be implemented by an application that is resident onthe computer where the user is active. When the user interacts with thecomputer, module 304 may be notified through the use of hooks or anyother means known in the art to monitor application and system calls,such as, for example, software drivers.

Module 306 may control user activity. In one embodiment, user activitymay be controlled by completely barring a particular website orapplication. In another embodiment, module 306 allows access to anapplication or website for a limited duration, e.g. when the prescribedconstraint is titration. In still another embodiment, module 306 maypresent a list of suggested alternative activities to dissuade the userfrom engaging in the unwanted behavior or may present a list of userauthored reasons to disengage from the behavior.

Module 308 may act as both a user and a system interface. In oneembodiment, module 308 outputs textual and graphical reports of useractivity and observation presenting information such as that discussedabove with reference to block 216 of FIG. 1. In another embodiment,module 308 may deliver rewards, such as electronic reward tokens oraffirmation emails, to the user. Module 308 may also output all systeminformation to a system information repository for back-up, portabilityor other purposes. Reciprocally, module 308 may import systeminformation from a system information repository for restoration,portability or other purposes. In another embodiment, the systeminformation repository may be used to store and forward treatmentinformation to health care provider for evaluation, or to statisticiansfor trend analysis.

Module 310 may present a user interface for entry of self-observations.These observations may be input under a freeform or form drivenparadigm. While the content included may cover any subject matter,preferably, SUD levels, emotional and situational antecedents, emotionalresponse to the behavior, and fiscal, familial, and emotionalconsequences are included.

The modular structure and content recited above is for exemplarypurposes only and is not intended to limit the invention to the specificstructure disclosed. As will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart, many variant modular structures can be architected withoutdeviating from the present invention. For example, these modules may beimplemented in as a stand alone executables, services, browser-basedforms, browser plug-ins or TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident)applications.

A process for treating excessive or problematic computer use 200according to one embodiment of the invention may be implemented on oneor more general-purpose computer systems. For example, various aspectsof the invention may be implemented as specialized software executing ina general-purpose computer system 400 such as that shown in FIG. 3.Computer system 400 may include one or more output devices 401, one ormore input devices 402, a processor 403 connected to one or more memorydevices 404 through an interconnection mechanism 405 and one or morestorage devices 406 connected to interconnection mechanism 405. Outputdevices 401 typically render information for external presentation andexamples include a monitor and a printer. Input devices 402 typicallyaccept information from external sources and examples include a keyboardand a mouse. Processor 403 typically performs a series of instructionsresulting in data manipulation. Processor 403 is typically acommercially available processor such as an Intel Pentium, MotorolaPowerPC, SGI MIPS, Sun UltraSPARC, or Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC processor,but may be any type of processor. Memory device 404, such as a diskdrive, memory, or other device for storing data is typically used forstoring programs and data during operation of the computer system 400.Devices in computer system 400 may be coupled by at least oneinterconnection mechanism 405, which may include, for example, one ormore communication elements (e.g., busses) that communicate data withinsystem 400.

The storage device 406, shown in greater detail in FIG. 4, typicallyincludes a computer readable and writeable nonvolatile recording medium911 in which signals are stored that define a program to be executed bythe processor or information stored on or in the medium 911 to beprocessed by the program. The medium may, for example, be a disk orflash memory. Typically, in operation, the processor causes data to beread from the nonvolatile recording medium 911 into another memory 912that allows for faster access to the information by the processor thandoes the medium 911. This memory 912 is typically a volatile, randomaccess memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or staticmemory (SRAM). It may be located in storage device 406, as shown, or inmemory device 404. The processor 403 generally manipulates the datawithin the memory 404, 912 and then copies the data to the medium 911after processing is completed. A variety of mechanisms are known formanaging data movement between the medium 911 and the memory 404, 912,and the invention is not limited thereto. The invention is not limitedto a particular memory device 404 or storage device 406.

Computer system 400 may be implemented using specially programmed,special purpose hardware, or may be a general-purpose computer systemthat is programmable using a high-level computer programming language.For example, computer system 400 may include cellular phones, personaldigital assistants and/or other types of mobile computing devices.Computer system 400 usually executes an operating system which may be,for example, the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000(Windows ME) or Windows XP operating systems available from theMicrosoft Corporation, MAC OS System X available from Apple Computer,the Solaris Operating System available from Sun Microsystems, or UNIXoperating systems available from various sources (e.g., Linux). Manyother operating systems may be used, and the invention is not limited toany particular implementation. For example, an embodiment of the presentinvention may display a report of monitored user activity using ageneral-purpose computer system with a Sun UltraSPARC processor runningthe Solaris operating system.

Although computer system 400 is shown by way of example as one type ofcomputer system upon which various aspects of the invention may bepracticed, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limited tobeing implemented on the computer system as shown in FIG. 3. Variousaspects of the invention may be practiced on one or more computershaving a different architecture or components than that shown in FIG. 3.To illustrate, one embodiment of the present invention may acquire useractivity configuration information using several general-purposecomputer systems running MAC OS System X with Motorola PowerPCprocessors and several specialized computer systems running proprietaryhardware and operating systems.

As depicted in FIG. 5, one or more portions of the system may bedistributed to one or more computers (e.g., systems 109-111) coupled tocommunications network 108. These computer systems 109-111 may also begeneral-purpose computer systems. For example, various aspects of theinvention may be distributed among one or more computer systemsconfigured to provide a service (e.g., servers) to one or more clientcomputers, or to perform an overall task as part of a distributedsystem. For example, various aspects of the invention may be performedon a client-server system that includes components distributed among oneor more server systems that perform various functions according tovarious embodiments of the invention. These components may beexecutable, intermediate (e.g., IL) or interpreted (e.g., Java) codewhich communicate over a communication network (e.g., the Internet)using a communication protocol (e.g., TCP/IP). To illustrate, oneembodiment may acquire user activity information though a browserinterpreting HTML forms and may import system information from a systeminformation repository using a data translation service running on aseparate server.

Various embodiments of the present invention may be programmed using anobject-oriented programming language, such as SmallTalk, Java, C++, Ada,or C# (C-Sharp). Other object-oriented programming languages may also beused. Alternatively, functional, scripting, and/or logical programminglanguages may be used. Various aspects of the invention may beimplemented in a non-programmed environment (e.g., documents created inHTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in a window of a browserprogram, render aspects of a graphical-user interface (GUI) or performother functions). Various aspects of the invention may be implemented asprogrammed or non-programmed elements, or any combination thereof. Forexample, a self-observation information data entry screen may beimplemented using Visual Basic while the application designed to monitoruser activity may be written in C++.

It should be appreciated that a general-purpose computer system inaccord with the present invention may perform functions outside thescope of the invention. For instance, aspects of the system may beimplemented using an existing commercial product, such as, for example,Database Management Systems such as SQL Server available from Microsoftof Seattle Wash., Oracle Database from Oracle of Redwood Shores, Calif.,and MySQL from MySQL AB of UPPSALA, Sweden and Web Sphere middlewarefrom IBM of Armonk, N.Y. If SQL Server is installed on a general-purposecomputer system to implement an embodiment of the present invention, thesame general-purpose computer system may be able to support databasesfor sundry applications.

Based on the foregoing disclosure, it should be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art that the invention is not limited to aparticular computer system platform, processor, operating system,network, or communication protocol. Also, it should be apparent that thepresent invention is not limited to a specific architecture orprogramming language.

Having now described some illustrative embodiments of the invention, itshould be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing ismerely illustrative and not limiting, having been presented by way ofexample only. Numerous modifications and other illustrative embodimentsare within the scope of one of ordinary skill in the art and arecontemplated as falling within the scope of the invention. Inparticular, although many of the examples presented herein involvespecific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should beunderstood that those acts and those elements may be combined in otherways to accomplish the same objectives. Acts, elements and featuresdiscussed only in connection with one embodiment are not intended to beexcluded from a similar role in other embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile computing device comprising: an inputdevice; an output device; a memory storing a categorization hierarchycomprising gaming applications; and at least one application executableby the mobile computing device, the at least one application belongingto the gaming applications of the categorization hierarchy; and at leastone processor coupled to the input device, the output device, and thememory and configured to receive, via the input device, information froma user of the mobile computing device, the information indicating thataccess to the at least one application by the user is to be monitored;monitor access to the at least one application by the user to record anactual duration of usage of the at least one application by the user;generate a user activity report indicating the actual duration; displaythe user activity report via the output device; receive, via the inputdevice, information specifying at least one constraint on access to thegaming applications of the categorization hierarchy, the at least oneconstraint identifying a limited duration of access to the gamingapplications; and impose the at least one constraint to limit, to thelimited duration, access to the at least one application by the user. 2.The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the user activity reportindicates times when the user started and stopped accessing the at leastone application.
 3. The mobile computing device of claim 2, wherein theuser activity report indicates baseline usage of the at least oneapplication by the user.
 4. The mobile computing device of claim 1,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive, viathe input device, the information specifying the at least one constraintfrom the user.
 5. A method of treating excessive use of a mobilecomputing device by a user of the mobile computing device, the mobilecomputing device comprising memory storing a categorization hierarchycomprising gaming applications and at least one application executableby the mobile computing device, the at least one application belongingto the gaming applications of the categorization hierarchy, the methodcomprising: receiving, via an input device of the mobile computingdevice, information from the user, the information indicating thataccess to the at least one application by the user is to be monitored;monitoring access to the at least one application by the user to recordan actual duration of usage of the at least one application by the user;generating a user activity report indicating the actual duration;displaying the user activity report via an output device of the mobilecomputing device; receiving, via the input device, informationspecifying at least one constraint on access to the gaming applicationsof the categorization hierarchy, the at least one constraint identifyinga limited duration of access to the gaming applications; and imposingthe at least one constraint to limit, to the limited duration, access tothe at least one application by the user.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein generating the user activity report comprises generatingindications of times when the user started and stopped accessing the atleast one application.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating theuser activity report comprises generating indications of baseline usageof the at least one application by the user.
 8. The method of claim 5,wherein receiving, via the input device, the information specifying theat least one constraint comprises receiving information specifying theat least one constraint from the user.
 9. A non-transitory computerreadable medium storing instructions for treating excessive use of amobile computing device by a user of the mobile computing device, theinstructions being encoded for execution by at least one processor ofthe mobile computing device, the mobile computing device comprisingmemory storing a categorization hierarchy comprising gaming applicationsand at least one application executable by the mobile computing device,the at least one application belonging to the gaming applications of thecategorization hierarchy, the instructions comprising instructions to:receive, via an input device of the mobile computing device, informationfrom the user, the information indicating that access to the at leastone application by the user is to be monitored; monitor access to the atleast one application by the user to record an actual duration of usageof the at least one application by the user; generate a user activityreport indicating the actual duration; display the user activity reportvia an output device of the mobile computing device; receive, via theinput device, information specifying at least one constraint on accessto the gaming applications of the categorization hierarchy, the at leastone constraint identifying a limited duration of access to the gamingapplications; and impose the at least one constraint to limit, to thelimited duration, access to the at least one application by the user.10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions togenerate the user activity report comprise instructions to generateindications of times when the user started and stopped accessing the atleast one application.
 11. The computer readable medium of claim 10,wherein the instructions to generate the user activity report compriseinstructions to generate indications of baseline usage of the at leastone application by the user.
 12. The computer readable medium of claim9, wherein the instructions to receive the information specifying the atleast one constraint comprise instructions to receive informationspecifying the limited duration from the user.